Market grinds to a halt causing major headache for developers

According to the latest figures from the Land Registry only 17 properties have been sold in Brentford so far this year. This is despite some large developments currently being actively marketed in the area at the moment.

Slow sales are likely to be a major concern to the developers with a large quantity of flats still to be brought to the local market. After a brief respite during which volumes appeared to be recovering last year, at current transaction levels it would take decades to clear the potential backlog.

It is hard to determine the direction of prices with the number of sales being so low but the average price so far this year is £306,176 which is up on the levels seen at the end of 2010. However this includes a sale in the Butts for £740,000. Without this sale price levels remain pretty much unchanged compared to previous months.

London property prices overall are up by 3.2% in February compared to last year, though they were down marginally on the previous month.

This is still highest level in the country with the North East seeing prices fall by 7.1% in the same period. Nationally prices fell by 1.7% in February 2011 compared with February 2010.

This brings the average property pricein the Capital to £341,048, in comparison to the figure for England and Wales, which is £162,215.

Longer term London has also significantly outperformed the rest of the country, according to the Nationwide House Price Index, with prices up 17% over the last five years.

This compares to a modest 1.3% increase across the UK as a whole. Over the same period, the North was the worst performing region, with prices down 7.8%.

Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist, said: " Demand for homes has levelled out, supported by historically low interest rates and some stabilisation in the labour market. The continued uncertain outlook for the economy is likely to keep many potential buyers on the sidelines for some time yet.

"Nevertheless, there are few signs of a glut of unsold homes building up on the market. Sellers remain reluctant to accept lower prices to secure a sale. In fact there are tentative signs that the volume of homes coming onto the market is slowing."

The numbers below are subject to revision as is it usual that some properties are added late to the Land Registry's database.

The latest reported sales are given in the table below.

Where do I live? Brentford TW8 postcodes are divided into three sectors, TW8 0xx, TW8 8xx and TW8 9xx. Broadly speaking, TW8 0xx covers areas east of Boston Manor Road, TW8 8xx goes west of Boston Manor Road, whilst TW8 9xx covers the areas to the north of the A4.

Brentford Property Prices - January/February 2011

May 1, 2011